This project imagines a lighthouse, not as a vertical structure, but as a horizontal one which intersects with the coastline. The primary building element comprises a large tank which farms natural bioluminescent plankton. These microscopic organisms glow as they cascade into the sea and disperse along the rocks, illuminating the coastline. A laboratory, pumping station and staff accommodation, are sited below the tank, linked by a circular stair which also provides access to the pool above.
While serving the traditional role of a lighthouse, the proposal acts as a beautiful and poignant memorial to the Costa Concordia disaster off the Giglio Island in Italy. This in turn is imagined as a tourist destination where visitors can contemplate the tragedy, experience the dramatic landscape and appreciate the beauty of the bioluminescence up close. Visitors are taken on a journey: having arrived at the jetty by boat they must cross beneath the waterfall before winding along the edge of the rocks on a raised walkway. Specific stopping points along the way provide views out to sea. The walkway emerges at a final viewing position set within the pool of glowing plankton.
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